White House rolls out sequester specifics

Eager to get the last word as Washington watches another countdown clock, the White House is seeking to portray Friday’s across-the-board spending reductions in terms of teacher jobs, measles vaccines for children and nutrition assistance meals for seniors.

Releasing a series of fact sheets breaking down the impacts of sequestration by state, administration officials on Sunday outlined what they said would be the real-world ramifications of inaction before the March 1 deadline — and laid the blame squarely at the feet of the GOP.

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“At the end of the day, it’s important to understand why the sequester is going into effect. It’s going into effect because Republicans are choosing for it to go into effect,” White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer told reporters on a conference call.

“Let’s be very clear — Democrats in the House are trying to resolve it, Democrats in the Senate are trying to resolve it, President [Barack] Obama is trying to resolve it, and the Republicans are making a policy choice that these cuts are better for the economy than eliminating loopholes that benefit the wealthy,” Pfeiffer added.

Republicans counter that this is the president’s mess. Sen. John McCain repeated on CNN’s “State of the Union” that the idea for sequestration originated in the White House and was proposed by Obama aides. Republicans have taken to calling it “the president’s sequester” and point to the version of events in Bob Woodward’s book “The Price of Power,” which depicts White House aides coming up with the idea to try to force compromise.

McCain’s colleague Sen. Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) on Sunday also dismissed Democrats’ claims that they were the ones trying hardest to resolve sequestration.

“I’ve been outraged by the fact that we haven’t had a budget for three years because the Senate Democrats haven’t wanted to do it,” Ayotte said. “I’m glad that to hear [them] say we should do it. We wouldn’t be in these positions, these sequester-type situations, if we actually prioritized spending.”

Whoever Americans ultimately hold responsible, the White House wanted to make the argument that it believes the stakes are high.

Sequestration would mean 14,000 fewer students would be served in the state of Virginia; the District of Columbia would lose about $80,000 in Justice Assistance Grants that support law enforcement and drug treatment; and 398 national parks across the country would be partially or fully closed, according to the White House fact sheets.

As many as 4,180 children in the state of Georgia won’t receive vaccines for diseases like measles, mumps, whooping cough, influenza and hepatitis B. In Ohio, 3,320 fewer low-income students would receive help financing college. New Mexico could lose $877,000 in grants for fish and wildlife protection. The Navy’s popular Blue Angels flight demonstration team would cancel planned shows in Corpus Christi and Fort Worth, Texas.

And all of these effects are in addition to sequestration’s “devastating” consequences for the Pentagon and defense industry, which Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and the service chiefs have been warning about for more than a year.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan also railed against congressional inaction on Sunday, saying that teachers across the country were already losing their jobs as school districts plan their budgets for next fall under the shadow of sequestration.

“The fact that this is so easily avoidable is why I’m so angry,” Duncan said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” “If folks would just work together, compromise, find the middle ground, we wouldn’t put districts and families and children through this much trauma. It doesn’t make any sense whatsoever.”